NAREA Professional Development Committee Report
October 27, 2006
Angela Ferrario and Simonetta Cittadini-Medina, Co-Chairs
1. 2007 Fundamental Principles Workshops
Now that we are approaching the 4th year of the Fundamental Principles series,the plan is to work with afew NAREA membership coordinators to further develop and support this professional development initiative and reach more members. Andrea Sibarro, CO membership coordinator, and Alba DiBello, NJ membership coordinator, have agreed to work with Angela along with Pat Tarr,who will focus on expansion of this project in Canada and Sausan Burshan who will focus on expansion of this project in Mexico.
2. NAREA Summer Conference
Location: Santa Monica, CA
Dates: June 28, 29, 30
Possible title: Advocacy,Diversity and Alliance for the Rights ofChildren: Teachers, Children and Parents as Co-researchers
- 2 speakers from RE, possibly Amelia Gambetti and Daniella Lanzi, Pedagogista
- Visit to 3 schools: FirstPresbyterian,Growing Place, Evergreen
The Professional Development Committee has recommended a separate adhocConference Planning Committee be formed.
A request was made to Reggio Children for NAREA to host the second annual Reggio Children International Network meeting prior to the NAREA Summer conference, on June 27. We are waiting for a reply.
3. NAREA’s Connection with SOLARE and Sausan Burshan's dual role
Simonetta and Angela held a conference call with Sausan to discuss these questions. Following are the main points from the discussion:
Q Are you able to continue on the Professional Development Committee?
Q In terms of NAREA, SOLARE and your role as a NAREA board member,what is your vision?
Discussion: Sausan reported that at the last meeting of SOLARE Mexico, she asked the group what they wanted in terms of her role and the relationship with NAREA The group expressed that they felt it was important for SOLARE Mexico to remain connected with NAREA as a bridge. They have decided not to become a separate membership group for now, and to remain as a study group network in Mexico. They want her to remain on the NAREA board. The group is interested in working with NAREA to develop bilingual professional development initiatives and to promote the translation of materials into Spanish. SOLARE Mexico proposed that in 2008 or 2009 we could possiblysponsor together a bilingual NAREA conference.
Sausan also explained that not all countries within SOLARE have network organizations. Mexico, Brazil and Peru have networks that are represented within SOLARE. Argentina, Paraguay, and Columbia have individual representatives.
Q A request from Colombia was made to NAREA in May. You presentedyour
experience at the conference. How was the decision made that youwould be
the representative for NAREA?
Discussion: It was agreed that when the NAREA office receives a request, then forwards it to the appropriate person(s), the parties need to know who else is being forwarded the request and the outcome needs to circle back to NAREA. In this case, both Sausan and Simonetta were forwarded the request and Sausan ended up presenting at the conference.
4. Future Professional DevelopmentInitiatives
In addition to the annual conference and fundamental principles series, we have begun to discuss future possibilities for NAREA sponsored professional development initiatives. Two broad projects have been identified:
Regional Professional Development Plan
Work with Membership Coordinators to develop a regional professional development plan for NAREA.
We will begin to discuss this at the Membership Coordinators meeting at NAEYC in Atlantaand will seek volunteers.
U.S. Study Tours
To develop a series of regional study tours by train across the U.S. in collaboration with Angela Ferrario. (Add Canada and Mexico in the future and possibly expand to other countries in the international network.)
Some initial steps would be to:
- establishregional geographic routes that include locations of NAREA member schools
- research AmTrak train routes across the US
- begin with outreach to NAREA board members who might be interested in participating
- branch out tomembership coordinators and members
- connect with organizers of Reggio-related conferences being planned at various locations
- decide on 2 or 3 pilot routes; include 3 to 5 sights per route
- createa professional development framework that includes visits to schools; facilitated discussion while traveling between sights; and seminars while at the schools if there is not already a pre-planned event at the location
- draft a financial structure that identifies line items to be accounted for in this project